Vale Flower Festival brightens up Penarth's high street

The event is hosted by the Vale of Glamorgan Council at high streets and town centres across the county - such as Llanwit Major, Cowbridge and Barry. 

Each area has a flower trail for shoppers and residents to take part in, where they can win £100 to spend at shops on their local high street. 

An array of floral arrangements are covering traders shop windows, and Lily Pad Florist created a sizeable installation that covers a tree outside the Marie Curie shop, outside the Tenovus shop and the entrance to Windsor Arcade. 

This display took around a day to complete

Trail maps will be available from traders on the high street, many of whom have enjoyed the event so far and what it has brought to the high street. 

Funky Monkey’s Justin Horton said: “It’s lovely. It’s not really had a direct impact on sales, but the weather has brought people out and following the trail, so that’s really good.

“We’ve done our windows, drawn some flowers in there and put all our floral dresses in there - we’ve done as much as we can.”

This installation took over two days to complete

To take part, participants are required to follow the map to find the flowers in selected shop window, identify what flower it is and fill it in on the entry form.

A close-up of the floral arrangement installation by Lily Pad Florist

Manager of Gifts at No.9, Sam Hurcom, said several people have come in wanting to get a trail map and asking about the festival. 

MORE NEWS:

•  This is how many cases of coronavirus were identified in the Vale on the weekend
•  Hannah Mills wins gold to become most successful female Olympic sailor ever
•  This is why a woman in a wedding dress was causing a stir in Penarth

“I think any of these kind of projects and things, is nice to see, and gets all the traders together and doing something. It’s great," he added.

Gifts @ No.9's window display

“Fingers crossed it will lift the footfall and it’s nice to brighten up the town.”

The festival will also allow traders to showcase their floral offerings during the month, including floral fashion and gifts, floral cocktails and food, and floral inspired beauty treatments.

Manager of Hamptons, Phil Trenfield, said he has noticed curious customers eyeing up their window display since the festival began on August 1. 

“We’ve had quite a lot of kids coming in and people checking the flower type on the window,” he added.

“It’s been going very well. 

Planters are also on display outside Hamptons

When asked if there has been an increase in buying customers from the event, he said “a little bit.”

“Because the weather has been so nice lately people tend to head down to Porthcawl or Barry for the day, but yeah it’s brought a few people.”

The event, which is funded by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, will take place in Cowbridge, Llantwit Major, Penarth and Barry and run from August 1 until August 31.